According to Matthew, Jesus says that Jeremiah spoke of events which would foreshadow the priests' purchase of the potter's field with the thirty pieces of silver Judas obtained for his betrayal of Jesus:
"Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders... And they... bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value; And gave them for the potter's field" (Matthew 27:3-10)
However, there is nothing like this "spoken of" in anywhere in the Bible. There are two stories (see below) which deal either with silver and a potter, or silver and a field being purchased, but neither of them have the remotest connection to a betrayer, blood money, and the purchase of a burying field, which Matthew said was "spoken of."
There is a story in Jeremiah about a man who bought his cousin's field, but it has nothing to do with anyone paying thirty pieces of silver for a potter's field. It has only to do with a man exercising his right to land ownership. Readers may confirm the facts for themselves. Here is the story:
"...your uncle is going to come to you and say, `Buy my field at Anathoth, because as nearest relative it is your right and duty to buy it'...so I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel and weighed out for him seventeen shekels of silver." (Jeremiah 32:7-10)
The other story is found in Zechariah, but it only describes a man angrily throwing thirty pieces of silver at a potter. It has nothing to do with buying a field from a potter. Here is the story:
"And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD. (Zechariah 11:12-13)
Unfortunately for the inerrantist, the Zechariah and Jeremiah stories seems to be the ones Matthew had in mind. The evidence of this is found in the words Matthew used, "the price of him that was valued." There is nowhere else in the Bible a phrase like this, except the one in Zechariah: " price that I was prised at of them." This cannot be a coincidence, especially since there is other information in the Zechariah passage which correlates roughly with the "thirty pieces of silver" and the "potter" that Matthew spoke of.
Thus, it seems that an inattentive Matthew, perhaps too lazy to look up the Zechariah verse, or perhaps not having a copy of it to look up, just remembered wrong. Matthew may have recalled the "thirty pieces of silver," and the potter, from Zechariah and inadvertently combined those facts with Jeremiah's description of the purchase of a field for seventeen shekels. No matter how it happened, though; Matthew was wrong. There is nowhere in the Bible a story about a man paying thirty pieces of silver for a potter's field.
But, it's worse than merely Matthew being in error; Matthew told a story that he seems to have been just made up from bits and pieces of two misremembered passages from the Old Testament. In fairness to the Matthew author, he may have sincerely believed that he was telling a story about Jesus that he thought must have happened, because he thought that the stories in the Old Testament prefigured coming events in the life of Jesus. However, it's clear that this author was badly mistaken. Thus, the Bible, once again, is in error.
Joseph F. Alward
"Skeptical Views of Christianity and the Bible"
http://members.aol.com/jalw/joseph_alward.html